It took a week before Jase Marshall was able to appear before the court.
Miss Georgia was all a-tremble as she, Jenny, Tommy, and James Stone arrived in the packed courtroom. Lathe met the little group at the door and escorted them up to a front seat. Jase sat in a hard-backed chair turned to partly face the crowded room and partly to face the judge. His face softened when he looked at Jenny and Tommy.
His honor Hiram Shores appeared and everyone stood up until Judge Shores had taken his place at the bench facing the room. This was to be a pre-trial hearing.
The clerk read a charge of armed robbery. Jase rose to his feet, looked Judge Shores in the face and declared, “Not guilty, Your Honor.”
The old judge, silvery mustache quivering, said. “That’s not what the bank teller says, young man.”
Miss Georgia squinted at the man on the bench. Was a judge supposed to voice such things?
The bank teller, Smudge Littleton, gave his testimony.
“Why, he is too guilty!” Smudge shouted. “I saw them both, plain as day, right there at my window they were, with a gun pointed right at me. Jase told me he needed five hundred dollars. Bold as brass, he was.”
The crowd muttered and shifted in their seats.
The judge pounded with his gavel. “All right now, hold on. You all just shut up a minute. How about you, Mr. Marshall? What do you say about that?”
Jase stood up, looked over at Penny and Tommy, and said, “I didn’t have any idea of robbing a bank. I was going to see if I could get a loan to sort of tide me over till I could find work, and that’s why I was there. That other man, I didn’t even know his name, but he told me he knew the bank president, and he’d put in a good word for me, just to tell old Smudge there that I needed about five hundred dollars. So, I did. I was just as surprised as old Smudge when he drew out his gun. Then, when Smudge reached under the counter and pulled out his own gun and started shooting, why he winged me in the shoulder. I was scared. So, I ran.”
The judge stroked his mustache and cleared his throat. “And, young man, had you had a mite to drink?”
“Well, what if I had?” Jase asked. “But, I wasn’t drunk. No sir.”
“A likely story!” Smudge shouted. “Drunk or not, he was going to rob the bank and he was with that other fellow, that Charlie Beardon.”
“Everybody just hush up a minute,” the judge said. “Let me sort this out in my mind.” The courtroom grew so still, Miss Georgia could hear a mouse chewing somewhere in the woodwork.
Finally, the judge spoke. “It’d be nice if you had a character reference from somebody, Jase. And, if you had a job to go to, once you get out of this mess. That’s a pretty dumb story you told. Saying you needed five hundred dollars? Humph!”
Jase slouched in his chair, hands hanging down between his knees. Miss Georgia couldn’t stand it any longer.. She sprang to her feet. “I believe him, Your Honor!” she said.
Judge Shores smiled. “Why, hello there, Miss Lee. I don’t think I’ve seen you since the cake walk at the school, must have been ten years ago.”
Miss Georgia raised her eyebrows. “Be that as it may, I want to say I believe Jase Marshall and that’s the same story he told me. The truth is, alcohol had sort of blurred his thinking. Beneath it all, Jase is a good man. He has a lovely family and they need him. He may have run at first because he was frightened, but when he came to his senses, he gave himself up. He just made a terrible, split second decision while he was under the influence. Haven’t we all made poor judgments at one time or another?”
The judge hammered with his gavel as the crowd murmured and whispered.
“He came to me, wounded and about half dead and I patched him up, best I could. He didn’t want to stay, said he didn’t want to get me in trouble with the law, but he was in no shape to go anywhere. So, yes, I believe Jase is telling the truth and he will have employment when he’s released, because he’ll be working for me.”
Miss Georgia was rather surprised to hear herself say this. What could she hire Jase to do? Maybe build a new chicken yard fence?
“Here now, quiet down. Order in the court, you all,” the judge roared.
It took a while, but after all was said and done, Jase Marshall was allowed to go home to his family. It gave Miss Georgia a warm feeling to know that, in some small way, she may have helped justice be served.
That night, after the hearing, she told Elmira all about it. Elmira munched on her tuna while listening attentively.
“You know,” Miss Georgia said, “I rather liked speaking my piece today. If I hadn’t, I don’t believe there was a soul in that room who would’ve stood up for Jase Marshall.”
She stirred the coals in her cook stove so she could make a cup of hot tea. “I shouldn’t have worried about what I’ll do now that I’m not teaching. Being an advocate for the underdog might be fulfilling. Yes, I do believe that may be my next calling.”
- The End –
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